Rant: I used to think the old paper manuals were a waste of space

Last month, I was working on a Citation's autopilot in a hangar with a spotty internet connection. The digital manual for the system kept freezing and wouldn't load the right wiring diagram. My boss, a guy who's been at this since the 80s, tossed me the old paper binder for that model. Found the exact page in about a minute and traced the fault to a bad connector at station 43. I've been scanning and tossing those binders for years to save room. Now I'm keeping at least one full set on the shelf. How many of you still rely on the paper copies when the network goes down?

4 comments

4 Comments

andrew6931mo ago

Man, my GPS died in the middle of nowhere last summer.

davis.gavin21d agoMost Upvoted

Grant over at the shop still keeps a paper map in his glovebox, says it's saved him more than once when signals drop. Funny thing is, when I was a kid my dad used those paper maps to navigate cross-country trips and never once complained about updates. Guess backing up the high-tech stuff with something simple isn't such a bad idea after all.

aaron_wilson1721d ago

Same here, my phone died on a backroad and that old map in my glovebox got me to a gas station.

grant_anderson1mo ago

Saw an article about airlines keeping paper charts as a backup. Makes you wonder why we rushed to throw everything out.